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2116The Concept of Pneuma after Aristotle (edited book)Edition Topoi. 2020.This volume explores the versatility of the concept of pneuma in philosophical and medical theories in the wake of Aristotle’s physics. It offers fourteen separate studies of how the concept of pneuma was used in a range of physical, physiological, psychological, cosmological and ethical inquiries. The focus is on individual thinkers or traditions and the specific questions they sought to address, including early Peripatetic sources, the Stoics, the major Hellenistic medical traditions, Galen, a…Read more
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57Eau de Cleopatra: Mendesian Perfume and Tell TimaiNear Eastern Archaeology 84 (3): 216-229. 2021.Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, reveled in perfume (Plutarch, Life of Marcus Antonius 26.2). She even used it in her seduction of the Roman general Marc Antony. Sailing up the river Cydnus to meet him, she reclined in a canopy spangled with gold, adorned like Venus in a painting. Boys dressed as cupids fanned her and wondrous scents from incense offerings wafted along the riverbanks. Not long after her death in August 30 BCE, a book circulated under her name called Cleo…Read more
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662Pneuma and the Pneumatist School of MedicineIn Sean Coughlin, David Leith & Orly Lewis (eds.), The Concept of Pneuma after Aristotle, Edition Topoi. pp. 203-236. 2020.The Pneumatist school of medicine has the distinction of being the only medical school in antiquity named for a belief in a part of a human being. Unlike the Herophileans or the Asclepiadeans, their name does not pick out the founder of the school. Unlike the Dogmatists, Empiricists, or Methodists, their name does not pick out a specific approach to medicine. Instead, the name picks out a belief: the fact that pneuma is of paramount importance, both for explaining health and disease, and for det…Read more
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418Simplicius: On Aristotle, On the Heavens 3.1-7. Ian Mueller trans. (review)Aestimatio 8 34-40. 2011.Review of Simplicius: On Aristotle, On the Heavens 3.1-7, trans. Ian Mueller, London: Duckworth, 2009.
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343Cohesive Causes in Ancient Greek Philosophy and MedicineIn Chiara Thumiger (ed.), Holism in Ancient Medicine and Its Reception, . pp. 237-267. 2020.This paper is about the history of a question in ancient Greek philosophy and medicine: what holds the parts of a whole together? The idea that there is a single cause responsible for cohesion is usually associated with the Stoics. They refer to it as the synectic cause (αἴτιον συνεκτικόν), a term variously translated as ‘cohesive cause,’ ‘containing cause’ or ‘sustaining cause.’ The Stoics, however, are neither the first nor the only thinkers to raise this question or to propose a single answer…Read more
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480Athenaeus of Attalia on the Psychological Causes of Bodily HealthIn Chiara Thumiger & P. N. Singer (eds.), Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine: From Celsus to Paul of Aegina, Brill. pp. 107-142. 2018.Athenaeus of Attalia distinguishes two types of exercise or training (γυμνασία) that are required at each stage of life: training of the body and training of the soul. He says that training of the body includes activities like physical exercises, eating, drinking, bathing and sleep. Training of the soul, on the other hand, consists of thinking, education, and emotional regulation (in other words, 'philosophy'). The notion of 'training of the soul' and the contrast between 'bodily' and 'psychic' …Read more
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1759Method and Metaphor in Aristotle's Science of NatureDissertation, University of Western Ontario. 2013.This dissertation is a collection of essays exploring the role of metaphor in Aristotle’s scientific method. Aristotle often appeals to metaphors in his scientific practice; but in the Posterior Analytics, he suggests that their use is inimical to science. Why, then, does he use them in natural science? And what does his use of metaphor in science reveal about the nature of his scientific investigations? I approach these questions by investigating the epistemic status of metaphor in Aristotelian…Read more
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Czech Academy of SciencesInstitute of Organic Chemistry and BiochemistryAssociate Scientist (Part-time)
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Prague, Prague, Czechia
Areas of Specialization
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |
Classics |